America's power plants deliver electrical power for residential, commercial, and industrial use almost exclusively via high voltage alternating current (AC). However, an increasing percentage of devices found in residences, businesses, and factories operate on low voltage direct current (DC) electrical power. For example, nearly all products that utilize rechargeable batteries, e.g., laptops, cellular telephones, smart phones, personal audio devices, and the like, require low voltage DC for power management and/or recharging of the device.
For converting the AC voltage exiting typical electrical outlets to the DC voltage needed to power such devices, a transformer “brick” is often required. Systems that use such transformer “bricks” do, however, suffer disadvantages. For example, the needed transformer “bricks” waste space and typically clutter an area that is centered on the AC outlet and/or the AC outlet is often not in a convenient location for recharging these electronic devices.
Furthermore, while there are many known bus systems that do take advantage of low voltage DC for use with LED lighting, these systems are not optimized to deliver power to a wide variety of devices including electronic devices that rely on connectors such as USB.